Instagram’s creator economy growth to be driven by content discovery, AI: Meta’s Arun Srinivas

Instagram’s growth strategy is increasingly centred on content discovery, audience engagement and artificial intelligence (AI), as the platform moves beyond follower-led distribution and expands opportunities for creators and businesses, according to Arun Srinivas, Country Director – India, Meta.

Speaking with digital content creator, actress and entrepreneur Kusha Kapila, Srinivas discussed changing content consumption patterns, the growing reach of regional creators and the potential of AI to transform the creator economy.

Srinivas said Instagram’s recommendation systems are enabling users to discover content beyond the accounts they already follow. This shift is creating opportunities for creators with smaller audiences to reach new viewers, with content relevance and audience engagement playing an increasingly important role.

For creators, understanding audience behaviour through analytics, including watch time, skip rates and engagement, is becoming essential to developing content strategies.

Kapila said her experience on Instagram had also demonstrated how audience engagement could translate into business opportunities. Regular questions from followers about the clothes she wore, along with significant interactions with brand tags on her Stories, helped her identify demand for a product and explore a business opportunity.

Regional content and micro-dramas gain traction

The growing diversity of content on Instagram is also changing the creator landscape. Srinivas highlighted how creators from smaller towns and different professional backgrounds are finding audiences by sharing their everyday experiences, local cultures and specialised interests.

Content discovery is no longer restricted to established categories such as fashion and beauty. Creators who bring authentic perspectives and connect with audiences through relatable storytelling are expanding the range of content available on the platform.

Kapila said she was also seeing younger creators experiment with storytelling formats, including micro-dramas and episodic series on Instagram. She noted that these formats were attracting interest as creators explored new ways to engage audiences through short, serialised narratives.

Srinivas attributed the popularity of such formats to changing viewing habits. Short-form videos and episodic content allow audiences to watch stories at their convenience, without committing to longer viewing sessions. He noted that micro-dramas are also gaining traction in markets such as China, South Korea and Japan.

AI opens new opportunities for creators and businesses

AI is emerging as another area of opportunity for Instagram’s creator ecosystem. Srinivas discussed how AI-powered personal assistants could help users manage everyday tasks, conduct research and organise travel and shopping.

For creators, AI agents could eventually help sort through large volumes of direct messages, identify brand collaboration enquiries and separate business leads from routine customer queries.

Small businesses could also use AI tools to manage orders, respond to customer enquiries, track inventory and coordinate supplier interactions, potentially reducing the time spent on routine operations.

Kapila highlighted AI-enabled translation as another useful tool for creators, allowing videos to reach audiences in different languages. She said translation could help creators expand beyond their regional-language audiences and make their content accessible to a wider viewership.

Srinivas also encouraged users unfamiliar with AI to begin incorporating the technology into everyday activities, including research, planning and content creation.

As Instagram’s creator ecosystem evolves, recommendation-led discovery, audience insights and AI tools are creating new opportunities for creators to build businesses and for smaller enterprises to reach customers.